Insomniac's Moon
by SSMcPriceley
Summary: McPriceley. Drama multi-chapter. McKinley has always had to care for Price, and Price has always had to care for McKinley. It's amazing how two utterly broken people manage to be so whole together. Future McPriceley piecing together their past and fighting to stay together and keep that future. Thanks to itsalatterdaytomorrow for the inspiration, tw eating disorders.
1. Chapter 1

"Why are you so sad?"

"I squashed a pregnant cockroach when I was ten and cried for an hour."

Connor had been trying to fill an awkward silence, thrust into the room by Kevin Price, who for the most of the last week had taken to staring at walls and going for long walks wishing for rain. There was a time when a remark like this might have got him to laugh, but Kevin had been acting so distant lately nearly every tiny thing set him off.

"What would make you happy?"

Kevin shrugged, making a non-descript 'mmm'ing sound.

It took all his strength just to stand up. He left Connor by himself in the living room of their perfect little blue home crammed in between two much taller houses on a suburban terrace, a white picket gate out front, a dog in the backyard, a ring on just the right finger. Connor tried not to take it too personally.

He decided to give his husband some space. Maybe it had been a bad day at the office, or maybe the weather forecast was sun. He found Kevin almost an hour later, crouched by a cardboard box in the attic. Kevin had been sorting through the papers and photos crinkled by the damp, a pile beginning to form next to him.

Connor laid a hand on Kevin's shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. He didn't really have to tell Kevin he was there, his husband had sensed his presence, the air around him stirred by small clouds of dust kicked up by Connor's careful footfalls.

"How did you know?"

"How did I know what?"

"That it was pregnant."

"It had one of those looks."

"Ah yes of course, the pregnant cockroach look."

"Do you remember this?"

Kevin held out a photo he'd taken out the box. The familiar faces, statically smiling up at him, made Connor feel an immense pang of nostalgia. The pair of them were there, looking literally ten years younger, arms carelessly slung around each other' waists, as were the rest of district nine.

"Gosh you look good..."

Kevin instinctively smiled at the compliment, his vain nineteen year old self shining through.

"Now I'm just worrying about my receding hairline," Connor said, running a paranoid hand through his hair which looked pretty much exactly the same as it did in the photo.

Connor silently shook his head as he saw nine unruly non-regulation hair cuts, which meant a photo taken post-excommunication. Ten bright smiles, not a care in the world, saving lives, taking care of each other, just being happy. The black and white uniformed men stood out against the yellow sulfurous cloud behind them. None of them had been sure what it was, but one day a strange bright yellow cloud of fumes had drifted out over the lake.

Like most nineteen year olds, the need to capture this moment outweighed the high probability of this cloud being dangerous and highly toxic. Which of course it had been.

The next day, Connor was dealing with his fellow elders throwing up furiously in their very small and only bathroom. Fond memories, he could almost smell it, the dust, the heat, the sweat, the fumes of that cloud that might have turned him blind. In a way it had all been worth it.

* * *

"I could hold your hair back?"

"Go away Elder Mc-"

The rest of Elder Price's choked sentence was interrupted, and Elder McKinley winced from the other side of the bathroom door as he listened to the retching inside. Pressing his ear against the wood he tutted sympathetically and went back to the kitchen to soak some more flannels in cold water. After dropping one off to every elder, half of them asleep, the other half writhing in their fevered sheets, he returned to the bathroom.

"Elder Price...? Kevin...?"

He tentatively turned the door handle.

Kevin was kneeling on the bathroom floor, tie loosened, breathing heavily.

"Kevin? I've made your bed, and some tea, and I have some nice cold flannels. Please just come to bed."

Elder McKinley knelt down beside Kevin and felt his forehead. "It doesn't look like you have much of a temperature, you'll be fine in the morning."

"In the morning?"

"Yes, in the morning," Elder McKinley affirmed, concerned at the deliriousness in Kevin's voice. His eyes were closed, and despite the lack of rising temperature he didn't look exactly well.

"Please come lie down." Elder McKinley gave him a reassuring nudge, he didn't seem to want to move.

Putting an arm around Kevin's shoulders and another under the crook in his knees, Elder McKinley carefully lifted Kevin. He was surprised at how light he was, it was barely an effort to lift him at all. Maneuvering the door with his foot, Kevin was carried by his district leader to his bedroom and then gently laid down on top of the sheets. A flannel was wrung out and placed over his forehead, then Elder McKinley tip-toed softly to the door.

"If you need anything, I'll be right next door."

Elder McKinley knew that he'd be pulling an all-nighter just to make sure that all his boys made it over the back of the fever in as much comfort as possible, but he was prepared and willing to do that for them.

"Elder McKinley?"

The voice was so soft and quiet, barely travelling across the darkness to the doorway.

"Yes?"

"Will you stay here tonight?"

"I'll be right next door don't you worry."

"No, I mean...here."

"Oh."

Elder McKinley glanced to the lightly snoring form of Elder Cunningham in the bed next to Kevin's. He went back over to the bed and sat on the edge, picking up the flannel and lightly dabbing at Kevin's forehead. It didn't take long for him to drift off, involuntarily nuzzling into Elder McKinley's lap in his sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Elder McKinley was holding Kevin's hand under a stream of cold water. With a cotton bud and some antiseptic he began to dab at the areas of Kevin's skin where it had been rubbed raw, the worst areas around the knuckles of his index and middle finger.

"I still don't understand how you managed it," Elder McKinley tutted as he shook his head.

"It was an accident."

"Yes, you said."

Elder McKinley held Kevin's wrist firmly as he wrapped a compression bandage around his fingers. Kevin held his hand up to look at the district leader's work, then let his hand fall limply back down. He hadn't even winced once as the alcohol based disinfectant had stung, or even when Elder McKinley had first noticed the sore redness on the back of his hand.

"Stung. Some African plant. I think. Maybe. I can't remember I must have brushed against something."

And then Elder McKinley, being the man that he was, had insisted that he clean and take care of it. Kevin admired this caring nature, but every moment in the bathroom while Elder McKinley tended to him had made him hate it. Nothing slipped past him, the good or the bad.

"I'll ask Mafala if he's seen it, he might know if it's poisonous."

"No it's ok."

"Not if someone else catches themselves on it, one injured elder at a time please, I can't handle more than one." Elder McKinley laughed and took Kevin's took hand from where it was dangling by his side.

He gave the palm a small, reassuring squeeze and smiled at his handiwork. "Hopefully it will all be better soon. I'll warn everyone else to keep an eye out so no one else gets into this mess."

"You don't have to."

"Kevin, I do."

"Please don't."

Elder McKinley sighed, and tried to decipher Kevin's expression.

* * *

"Kevin? Are you awake?"

Kevin was staring at the ceiling, unable to make out anything in the dark, but his eyes were open all the same.

He always thought it was strange, that even without moving a single muscle, Connor could still tell when he wasn't asleep.

"Mmm," He replied.

He felt a hand slide across his stomach and Connor draw himself in close, a pair of knees curled up against the side of his body. He knew what this meant. They were about to have; A Talk.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You haven't been sleeping."

"How do you even know that?"

"I always know when you're awake, because when you're asleep darling, you snore."

Kevin rolled his eyes and wrapped his arm around Connor's shoulders, glad to have a warm body pressed in close to his.

"I was just thinking about some of those photos, and remembering...things."  
"It was a long time ago." Connor's tone that had been concerned, but almost playful, had changed. It sounded anxious, serious, wanting to steer Kevin away from remembering the things that he'd clearly chosen to remember at this moment.

"You tried so hard to care for me." Kevin's voice cracked in the darkness and instantly Connor was holding him tighter. "Even when you had no idea what was going on, why?"

"I figured you'd let me know in your own time what was wrong. In the meantime it was just my job to take care of you, so I did, no questions asked."

* * *

'Tell him.'

The voice in his head just wasn't going away this time. Pacing the floor up and down, Elder McKinley just metres away in the next room, the other elders out proselytizing, it would be so easy just to take a few moments to explain.

He dug his nails into his palms, bit his lip until it was sore, blinked until frustrated tears came out. Still he hadn't moved from his room, the sky outside had turned orange, and it was the end of another day and the opportunity had gone.

The kitchen was full of elders, hungry after a whole day's proselytizing.

"Want me to make you something Kevin?" Arnold asked eagerly, keen to show off any new skill that Elder McKinley had taught him.

"No thanks, I ate earlier." Kevin smiled at his companion, who didn't appear too crestfallen, then went into the living room to find Elder McKinley.

"Elder McKinley I just-..."

"Ah Elder Price! Just who I wanted to see."

Kevin bit his lip.

"I was going to ask you earlier, but I've been so busy." Hand on one hip, the other running through his hair, he looked the definition of flustered. "There's a hole in the roof and there's something beginning to make a nest in it. I've only just managed to catch it. I'd do it myself, but you know, I'm a bit scared of heights."

"No problem."

"Would you be able to do it now? Before the sun sets maybe?"

"Sure."

Ten minutes later and Kevin was using the last of the sun to nail some planks across the whole in the roof. It wasn't hard work. After ejecting the jumping spider and cleaning up its home the rest had been simple.

"Elder Price?"

Kevin looked down over the ledge to see Elder McKinley looking up at him. "Almost done?"

"Almost." Kevin nodded. "Come have a look."

"No thanks, I'll take your word for it."

"Heights?"

"Heights."

There was a pause, the silence broken only the crickets and the soft wind brushing through the dry reeds.

"I bought you some water, in case you were thirsty."

"Well, you'd better come up here and give it to me."

Elder McKinley raised an unamused eyebrow.

"Go on, try, it's not that high."

Elder McKinley put a tentative foot on the first rung of the ladder propped against the building. Gripping tightly he made it up three rungs before stopping and deciding it was too high. He was about to climb the three rungs back down again when a hand appeared in his line of vision.

"Come on, I'll help you up."

Elder McKinley took it and was surprised that Kevin could pretty much lift him the rest of the way onto the roof.

"Don't worry I've got you."

Elder McKinley stumbled as soon as he stood upright and let out a terrified gasp, but Kevin quickly reached out to grab his waist and pull him back. Once he felt safe and secure, comfortable that Kevin was there holding onto him, he looked out across the village.

"Oh my gosh, it's so beautiful."

It was just the right time to watch the sun set over the lake, orange glows cast across the waters and on their faces. Then, the light was gone.

"If you wait, you'll start to see the stars."

Kevin was right. In the middle of this African village in the middle of nowhere the sky was so clear and every star was vivid and bright.

They probably stood there for too long for it not to seem suspicious to the other elders below, but for both of them it was impossible to move while pinioned down to the rooftop by the stars.


End file.
